church schools

A new coalition called Accord, which will be launched officially on Monday 1 September 2008, is calling on Children, Schools and Families Secretary of State Ed Balls to stop publicly-funded faith schools from discriminating against students and teachers on the grounds of their beliefs.

The government is being urged to reform faith schools to ensure they cannot discriminate against pupils and teachers on religious grounds and to give a clear commitment to inclusive, community-wide education for all Britain's pupils.

The British Humanist Association (BHA) and the religious thinktank Ekklesia are amongst those who have today criticised as 'misguided' a report on faith schools published today by the Centre for Policy Studies

An inquiry has been ordered following claims that some schools - most notably faith schools - have been breaking laws aimed at making admissions fairer. Schools Adjudicator Philip Hunter has been given until July for his probe.

Faith schools appear to be the main offenders when it comes to breaking new rules on admissions, a Government survey has found.
Ed Balls, schools secretary, announced that his Department had randomly picked three authorities to examine

Tory leader David Cameron has refused to condemn parents who pretend that they have Christian beliefs in order to win places in church schools. His comments came in an interview for the Times newspaper.

Jonathan Bartley, co-director of Ekklesia is debating church schools with John Hall (ex-head of C of E Board of Education, now Dean of Westminster) and Jeremy Craddock, Dean of Emmanuel College Cambridge, in central London.